Tag Archives: biking

Minnesota – Sakatah Singing Hills Bike Trail

27 Jul

For the next leg of our bike trip, we relocated to Mankato to ride the Sakatah Singing Hills trail. That meant that this was a rest day for us as we were relocating to a new town and a new trail. We had reservations at Moulin Rouge House in Mankato.

Mankato is mentioned in the Little House on the Prairie TV series, but it is not known whether Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family ever visited here. Mankato is situated at the edge of the “big woods” before the start of the prairie, and was an important supply stop for those traveling west during the pioneer times. Therefore, a stop for supplies by the Ingalls family is a very real possibility.

We found the Moulin Rouge House with only a little difficulty, Google maps directed us to arrive by back alley at the rear of the house, which turned out to be correct, since that was where the parking was located, but we kept trying to find the front entrance.

The house was built in 1886 and was beautiful. It has been lovingly restored by the current owners and is named after the Moulin Rouge beauty shop, which operated in the front parlor for 75 years!

The house was on the verge of being torn down so that an apartment building could be erected on the lot. Thankfully, the city of Mankato denied the request. Lizzie and Lewis Hunt lived in the house after its construction until 1908, and the home was locally known as the Hunt House.

Lizzie was quite a character for her time. A newspaper article described her as “tough-talking and mannish”. She was a building general contractor for this home and 4 additional homes in the neighborhood. She proved to be a successful businesswoman, and worked from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm overseeing her job sites. Her workers didn’t dare leave before she left, and I suspect better not arrive after she arrived. She was a force to be reckoned with and many people were afraid of her. She was often seen wearing an old felt hat and one of her husband’s discarded overcoats with her hands jammed deep into the pockets as she strode to the job site. But in the evenings, it is said that she preferred lace or velvet dresses and always wore diamond earrings.

An article written about Lizzie in 1946 (by a journalist that lived across the street from the Hunts), described her as “devoted to the nth degree to her husband…waiting on him hand and foot. She went with him everywhere.” It went on to say she could be ready to go to Europe on 5 minutes notice.

Lizzie laid out her husband’s clothing, washed his shirts just the way he liked and tied his ties. When asked about her habit of washing her husband’s back for him when he was in the tub, Lizzie said, “why sure, if I didn’t wash his back, it wouldn’t be done til the undertaker did it!”

The large bay window in the front parlor was Lizzie’s purchase for the house, and came from the Chicago World’s Fair where it hung originally in the French pavilion. The Hunts brought it to the house in 1893 as part of the front parlor remodel, overseen by Lizzie. The window arrived from Chicago by train and was paraded up the street with great fanfare and excitement by the residents of the community. Our room was located on the second floor, right above the parlor and was called the World’s Fair room. I took several pictures of the home, it was just so pretty!

We left our car at the B&B and rode out of Mankato to the edge of town to connect to the trail. It was a beautiful ride through the historic neighborhood on a dedicated bike lane.

The Sakatah Singing Hills trail is 39 miles long, so we’ve packed one night’s worth of clothing on our bikes and will stay the night and bike back. The trail traverses a section of the old rail line between what was once the “big woods” and the vast prairies. Remnants of tall grass prairie can still be seen along the old rail line. It was beautiful!

Our first stop was in the little town of Elysian where we came upon the mercantile and a sign beside the road letting us know they had freshly baked hand pies. We couldn’t resist a coffee break and a hand pie. They were delicious!

We continued on and were soon ready for lunch. We noticed from our trail map that Waterville was likely our best option for lunch. As we rode up the little main street to check out our options we saw there was a Mexican restaurant, a snack shack, and an old corner grill. Having checked out all the lunch options, we circled back down the street to pick a spot to eat. I noticed a police officer standing at the edge of the street in front of a church speaking to a gentleman in a suit. I pulled up beside them to get their recommendation on the best place for lunch. As they finished up their conversation, the police officer turned to me and asked if I needed to speak to her or to the gentleman. I explained that we were traveling along the trail and wanted a local’s recommendation for the best lunch in town.

At that point, the gentleman took a step forward and spoke up. He said, “you can eat here in our church basement! We’ve got ham and roast beef sandwiches and all the sides. It’s really good roast beef!” Apparently the two had been coordinating the police escort to the cemetery from the church, where a funeral was underway. The officer laughed and said something about funeral food. I think the gentleman from the church was sincere in his invitation. It was very nice, Minnesota nice! It was so kind of him to offer, and I was tempted just out of appreciation. I told him I didn’t feel right about eating funeral food for a person I didn’t know, but decided we’d better take the recommendation of the corner grill the police officer had made. He said, well that’s good too, lol! We enjoyed cheeseburgers and fries from the corner grill and ate them on a bench overlooking Main Street.

After lunch, we continued down the trail toward Faribault, taking in all the beauty of the trail.

We reached Faribault and used the bike overlay in Google maps to navigate to the historic Hutchison House. The “Hutch” House as the owners call it, is an 1892 Queen Anne Victorian, and was very easy to spot atop the hill in its periwinkle blue and pink paint! It was built as a private residence, served as a boarding house, and now a B&B.

A local doctor and his wife bought the house in 1915 and modified the floor plan to generate some extra income by taking in boarders. That floor plan was an easy transition to a B&B. Our room was spacious and comfortable.

For dinner, it was an easy walk down to the restored train depot in town, which has been converted to a restaurant. On our walk back from the restaurant, one of my shoes completely came apart, with the entire sole flopping as I walked. I had to take my shoes off and walk back in my bare feet. I had packed light since we had to carry everything we needed for this overnight stay on our bikes, and didn’t have an extra pair of shoes with me. We made it back to the B&B and mentioned to the owner that I’d had a problem with my shoe and didn’t have an extra pair. She provided 2 options for repairing the shoe, and said if one doesn’t work, you can try the other. I glued the sole back on with the liquid cement she’d loaned us, and it worked perfectly. It held through the rest of the trip!

The view from the porch of the Hutch House

The next day, we made the return trip back to our car in Mankato, retracing our route on the trail. As we pulled up in front of the Moulin Rouge, there was a bride having photos made in front of the beautiful old home. I know her wedding day photos will be beautiful, and I was happy to get one last look at the gorgeous old home.

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Minnesota-Lake Wobegon Trail – Day 4

14 Jul

On the last day of this bike trail, we would ride our way back to St. Joseph where we left the car. With one last visit to the Albany Home Bakery, telling the kind ladies in the bakery goodbye, we packed up the bikes and headed for St. Joseph. The mileage today was much lighter. It was just 15 miles to St. Joseph from Albany, but we had an option of some additional miles depending on how we felt once we arrived in St. Joseph.

It was a cloudy, overcast morning as we left Albany, and very cool. When we left the Airbnb, it was 60 degrees.

We made good time in reaching St. Joseph, but were too early to check in the our B&B. We unloaded some of our baggage at the car and headed to the corner taco restaurant for a quick lunch. We sat outside with a view of beautiful College of St. Benedict.

Our plan was to get a few more miles of riding in while we waited for our room at the B&B. We started off in the direction of Waite Park, on the outskirts of Saint Cloud, but soon realized that route was taking us into an urban area with many road crossings and heavy traffic. By this time, the clouds had cleared and the sun was out, and we knew a ride back along the trail in the direction we had just traveled, would give us more beautiful views and the extra miles we wanted. Plus, when we ate dinner along the trail last evening at the Fisher’s Club, we noticed they had a great dessert menu that we were too full to try. A piece of pie beside the lake at the Fisher’s Club sounded like a great way to justify an 18 mile round trip!

As we rode back, I took additional pictures since the sky was so pretty even though some of these I’d already photographed this morning, lol!

Fisher’s Club opened in 1932 and was owned by the Fisher family for many years. From 2005-2012, Garrison Keillor was a co-owner. Fisher’s is a supper club, and these were very popular in the 1930’s in the rural Midwest. Most sprang up at the end of prohibition and Fisher’s is no exception. There is no actual membership required for this club, anyone can eat at the supper club and many times it’s the only place to eat in the little towns where they exist. Entering Fisher’s was like stepping back in time.

It’s largely unchanged on the inside, and as Mrs. Fisher once said, “the only thing that changes around here is the light bulbs.” Many supper clubs began as bottle clubs, where customers were permitted to bring in their “preferred” drink to accompany their meal, and Fisher’s was one of those. The restaurant still has the little wooden lockers that were once used by the men of the community to store their bottles until their next visit. They still contain the paper strips taped to the top of each locker with the name of the man to which they were assigned. These lockers were often handed down within families for several generations. It was really interesting to see. Though they are unused and unneeded now, they are a glimpse of a time gone by.

The red wallpaper, now famous because it was installed in 1959 still decorates the walls and part of the ceiling. I think if they tried to change that, they would meet some resistance.

Fisher’s has managed to hold on and is now a family-friendly place, where neighbors catch up with one another while enjoying really good food in a hometown atmosphere. We had eaten there last night in Jimmy’s continuing quest for walleye! He loved it! They still use the top-secret breading recipe for the walleye that was developed in the 1930’s, and they will not share that secret! The potato salad took one whole summer to perfect and is a crowd favorite.

And one other thing about Fisher’s, they are extremely nice here. “Minnesota nice”! We had ridden on our bikes to eat here last night, and it began to rain while we were eating. By the time we finished our meal, it was really coming down and we had 6 miles to travel back to our Airbnb. The owner, realizing we were on bikes as we paid our bill, offered to drive us back to Albany in her car. She would have left the restaurant on this very busy night, where she was working the cash register, refilling drinks, carrying out food, etc. to drive 2 strangers that she’d never met and would most likely never see again to the next town so we wouldn’t get wet. It was very kind of her and definitely above and beyond our expectations of good service, lol. We thanked her profusely and told her we’d ridden in rain before and didn’t mind. But we were so blessed by her offer. It was very kind and just another example of how nice the people are in Minnesota!

But that was last night. Today, we’d made the ride back in sunny weather to try the pie. We each ordered a piece and enjoyed it on the deck overlooking the lake with a cup of percolator-made coffee in a heavy old school restaurant mug! It was delicious and I’ll admit that as we ate our pie, I tried to Google the recipe, but could not find it.

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Minnesota-Central Lakes Bike Trail-Lake Wobegon Trail-Soo Line Trail – Day 2 & 3

11 Jul
A happy barn!

Little did we know, we were in for a real treat at breakfast at the Cedar Rose Inn. We considered skipping breakfast at the inn in order to get an early start on our ride. We are early risers, and enjoy riding in the early morning before the temperatures climb too high and the trails are more crowded. Actually neither of those reasons has been a concern on this trip. We’ve had great, low humidity weather for the most part and the trails are not crowded.

The innkeeper told us she’d serve breakfast at 9:00 am, which is later than we are accustomed to, but after much deliberation, we decided to wait for breakfast, and we’re glad we did! We walked downstairs to a table fully set with fine china and the beginnings of a great breakfast. We were joined by a couple from Ohio and enjoyed the breakfast conversation.

As we enjoyed our breakfast, the innkeeper asked if we’d like to hear more about the house. Of course we would! She shared the history of the home, built in 1903 and a little about the families that lived in it. The walls in the downstairs portion of the home are a textured plaster with watercolor stenciling in the acorn and trailing vine motif and have never been painted since original installation in 1920. She said the house remains largely unchanged since it was built. Thankfully no one tried to modernize it by painting over the lovely oak woodwork, plaster walls or by covering the maple floors.

The innkeeper said the only real update had been to the kitchen, for which she was thankful because she does much cooking for the B&B. But even then, the original kitchen cabinets, with original stenciling from 1903, were saved and are now installed in the garage for storage. She said I could see them when we retrieved our bikes from the garage. And I did! I loved them!

Speaking of the garage, it was added to the side of the house when one of the previous owners thought it would be a good idea to turn the lovely old home into a funeral parlor. The garage was built to be large enough for a hearse to easily back in and unload the body into the basement for the embalming process.

The neighbors did not think this was a good idea at all. The house was located right across the street from the hospital and it was thought to be in very poor taste to have a funeral parlor across from the hospital. The funeral parlor operated for 2 years in the home. And then, only because the legal process took that long for the Minnesota Supreme Court to rule in favor of the neighborhood, and the funeral parlor had to be moved to a different location.

Fully fortified after a wonderful breakfast, we said goodbye to the innkeeper and the other guests and headed out. Today our ride continues along the Central Lakes Trail, and will seamlessly transition in Osakis, to the Lake Wobegon Trail, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average (not the trail but the town, lol). These were Garrrison Keillor’s famous closing words about Lake Wobegon in his weekly radio program. Lake Wobegon is a fictional town (to the great disappointment of many people). Keillor has said that people want the stories to be true and could see their disappointment when he insisted it wasn’t a real town. So he began to answer the question about the location of Lake Wobegon in a more general way, saying it was in central Minnesota in the vicinity of Holdingford, Albany, and Freeport. We’ve ridden through all 3 of these towns on the trail these past 2 days, and they are all 3 very cute hometowns with friendly, welcoming people. “Minnesota nice” is a real thing here.

I took lots of pictures as we rode. Our route took us through more open farmland and we saw more livestock today. It was a beautiful ride and the trail was in great condition.

In Osakis, the trail changes from the Central Lakes Trail to the Lake Wobegon Trail.

We found lunch at a cafe near the trail and stopped again at another little trailside cafe later on for iced tea. There were several options for food and snacks on the trails each day. Wildflowers are abundant all along the trail.

We had reserved an Airbnb in Albany and covered the 46 miles from Alexandria to Albany in about 6 hours. We stop often to take photos! The Airbnb was easy to find and is in an old building over a vintage home decor store. The building is one of the oldest in town and was originally owned by the rairoad. The upper floor where we are staying, has always been used as living quarters for the merchants that have run the businesses downstairs. The lower floor has served as a blacksmith shop, barbershop, and beauty salon. Right beside the Airbnb is the Albany Home Bakery. We’ve made a few trips there! Right across the street is a Kraft factory where they make cheese products. I could smell the scent of American cheese as we rode past on the bikes!

We planned a 2 night stay in Albany in order to ride the spur trail that consists of an additional section of the Lake Wobegon Trail, and the Soo Line Trail. Again, the 2 trails just change names, easily transitioning from one trail to the next.

We had to visit the bakery downstairs for coffee and donuts before we set out. They were delicious and the ladies working in the bakery were very nice, asking us about our trip and where we were from. We told them we’d visit them again tomorrow before we left their little town to continue our journey. The photos below may or may not contain pictures of all the donuts consumed, lol.

The temperature had dropped to 49 degrees overnight, so we didn’t head out quite so early, hoping it would warm up. The sun was out and it didn’t take long for the sun to warm things up, though it was a much cooler day, it was great riding weather.

Several people in town had mentioned to us the BoHo Cafe right along the trail in Holdingford. In fact, when we were at the Airbnb in Iowa earlier during this trip, Zack had mentioned the place to us as well since one end of the building houses an art studio. Zack, an artist himself, had painted the big mural inside, so we knew we had to stop and check it out. It was a beautiful building. Our intent was just to get coffee on this chilly morning, but we couldn’t resist a second breakfast once we saw the menu. Also, we told the person taking our order that we’d be back for lunch!

We got back on the bikes and headed on. We passed through some cute small towns as we made our way to the bridge over the Mississippi River where we’d turn around and head back. There were so many beautiful fields and wildflowers!

We made it to our turn around point at the Mississippi River. The Mississippi has grown a little bigger in this part of Minnesota. Much bigger than at its source further north, but not nearly as big as the Mississippi in the south. Also, the river is backed up by Blanchard Dam to form a lake.

After spending some time on the bridge, we turned back for the beautiful ride toward Albany and for our lunch at the BoHo Cafe!

And in all honesty, once we got back to Albany, we visited the sweet ladies in the bakery again so we’d have a bed time snack! We thanked them and told them we’d see them in the morning. After all, we’d ridden 43 miles today, and will add another 12 when we ride to dinner. (At least that’s how we justify it to ourselves!)

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Minnesota-Central Lakes Bike Trail-Day 1

10 Jul

Yesterday we checked out of our hotel in Bemidji, and traveled south to Fergus Falls. We’ve left the Paul Bunyan Trail and started the Central Lakes Trail today and will also ride the Lake Wobegan Trail since they are connected. This leg of our journey will be a bit different, as we will not have a shuttle service moving our luggage from place to place. We found a shuttle service willing to transport us to the end of the trail, so we can ride the entire trail without having to double back at the end. But this shuttle service only provides transport for people and bikes, they don’t transfer luggage each day. We will miss that, but took some time yesterday to put everything we need for the 4 days we are away from the car in our bike bags.

We parked our car behind the B&B in St. Joseph’s, where we will be lodging at the end of the trail. The owner was very accommodating to allow us to take up that space in her small parking lot for 4 days prior to our night at her B&B!

We had a little extra time on our hands before the shuttle arrived, so we ate lunch at a new taco restaurant on the corner and I walked around and took pictures of the pretty little downtown St. Joseph.

We made another quick check of our bags before loading them on our bikes, and walked to the street in front of the B&B to wait for our shuttle. Before long, the shuttle arrived and we loaded the bikes and set off for Fergus Falls.

The Central Lakes Trail is 55 miles long and runs from Fergus Falls to Osakis. In Osakis, the Lake Wobegan Trail connects and extends to St. Joseph for another 65 miles. St. Joseph is where we left the car. We’ve divided this ride into 4 days to cover them both.

The shuttle (Central Lakes Trikes Shuttle Service) dropped us off in Fergus Falls just in time to check in to our Airbnb. We stayed on the upper floor of one of the oldest buildings in Fergus Falls, right on the main downtown street. It was quite a walk up all those stairs with the bikes, but we made it!

The little apartment was super cute and very clean. We left the bikes and walked up and down the streets below, taking photos of all the vintage buildings and vintage signs. It is a really cute town.

The next morning, we were ready to go early. We ate breakfast at the Viking Cafe right across the street. It has been family-owned and in the same location since 1965. It was like stepping back in time and was delicious!

On the way out of town, we had to stop by the park and get a quick photo of Otto the Otter. He is the town mascot I guess, since Fergus Falls is located in Otter Tail County, lol. It’s the first thing you see as you pass the lake into Fergus Falls.

We easily found the trail and set off to cool temperatures and bright blue skies. I took several photos. This trail has more open views, it’s not all shade covered like the Paul Bunyan, but that was fine since the temperatures were very pleasant today. We saw more big farms and an abundance of birds along the trail as much of the trail goes through marsh areas and of course beside lakes! There were several stands of wild asparagus beside the trail as well.

wild asparagus almost covers the stop sign!

Alongside the trail, we found the Purple Heart Chapel. It was an interesting little place with a small collection of artifacts pertaining to the military service of community members and family members. There was also a cooler containing free bottled water. I took a peek in the chapel and signed the guest book. Posted near the water cooler, was this message:

Thank you for stopping!

People have asked what this is and why we did this. Our family has been on this farm since 1868. We thought this would be a good use for the little piece of land beside the bike trail.

It is to honor two people who were willing to die for us to pay a debt that we had.

We owe a debt to the American servicemen. Before you were born they defended you.You are the beneficiary of their sacrifice. Inside (the chapel) are some (information about) relatives. Most came home and a few did not.

The servicemen paid the debt for our freedom and our opportunity. Christ paid the debt for our soul.

The body that you walk around in is very temporary and will not last very long. Your soul never dies and will have a home and you have a say in the matter.

The reason that John 3:16 is the most quoted vderse in the Bible is because it tells what is necessary to save your soul in a few words. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him, should have eternal life.”

No one expects perfection. If that is the case – I am not a candidate. It is simply believing and acknowledging the debt.

Please take a bottle of water and thank you again for stopping. And sign the guest book!

Joel and Tuyet Rovang

We ate lunch on the trail in a small town where we found cheeseburgers and fries and enjoyed them at the trailside picnic shelter.

We arrived in the town of Alexandria at around 3:00 pm and it was hard to miss the big Viking standing alongside the trail as we rolled into town. His name is Ole (Oh-Lee) the Viking, and he stands tall (28 feet!) as a symbol of the town’s Viking pride. He is made of fiberglass and has some tales to tell!

He was built to accompany the Kensington Runestone to the 1965 World’s Fair. The Kensington Runestone is a flat piece of stone that was discovered in this area by a farmer in 1898, when the farmer was clearing his land. It was lying face down on a little knoll and was tangled in the roots of a tree. The stone contained chiseled inscriptions which, when translated, appeared to be notes made by Norse explorers. There has been much debate as to whether it is a hoax or whether it is a genuine artifact from the 14th century, and if it is, how did it make its way to a farm in Minnesota a century before Christopher Columbus began his exploration? The Runestone museum was not open today, so I could not see the stone or learn any more about it, but that’s a controversy for another time.

No matter which side of the debate you were on, the Kensington Runestone was important enough (or controversial enough) to make it to the 1965 World’s Fair in New York, and needed a big Viking to escort it! Ole was constructed to be the Viking escort and was part of the New York World’s Fair until it concluded in December of that year. The Viking returned to Alexandria (as did the Runestone) and has had a prominent place of display ever since. But not without incident.

In 1967, the town dressed him up for the Christmas holidays in a Santa suit, but low and behold, someone shot a flaming arrow at him in his Christmas finery and it sent him up in flames! His sword was once snapped off by a vandal and in 1996, he was knocked off base by a strong storm. When they lowered and removed the Viking to make repairs to the wind damage, his leg was crushed under the collapse of a snow-covered roof! But each time, the little town of Alexandria has come to the rescue, fixing him up, patching him up and repainting as needed. He stands head and shoulders above the town and is right on the bike trail.

We easily found our B&B, a few blocks ride through the town of Alexandria, and though we were a little earlier than the 4:00 pm check in, the innkeeper was ready for us. We stored the bikes in the garage, grabbed our bags and were shown to our room.

The Cedar Rose Inn is beautiful with a wide wrap-around porch that we have taken advantage of! We are in the James Herriott room, named after the author (but not because he stayed here). The house was built in 1903 as a private home, then for many years, served as a “hostess house” in the community. It was a venue for weddings, social events, baby showers, community gatherings, etc.

At one point, one of the owners of the home attempted to operate a funeral home at this location, and succeeded for 2 years, but finally the community sentiment was so strongly against it, he was forced to choose another location for his funeral business. I’m glad it was saved and still serves as a hostess home of sorts, welcoming travelers like us after a long day on the trail!

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Paul Bunyan State Trail-Minnesota-Day 4-Walker to Bemidji

8 Jul

We woke up to very cool temperatures (54 degrees), but bright blue sunny skies, which was a welcome sight after 2 days of showers and clouds. We bundled up and headed out. Today’s route would take us back to Bemidji where we’d left our car parked at the hotel. Walker was very quiet this morning as we made our way through the downtown area on the way out of town.

I took many photos today, it was just so beautiful!

There are many family resorts, campgrounds, cabins, etc around the lakes in Minnesota. Each one tidy and well cared for. I had to stop and take a picture of this mailbox at one of the cabins.

It was an easy ride and we made good time. We only made one trail side stop in La Porte for a cup of coffee in a little hometown market, then back on the trail. We arrived back in Bemidji much earlier than we anticipated having ridden about 32 miles at that point. We decided we’d eat lunch in Bemidji, at a place Rhonda, our shuttle driver had recommended. We were able to take the trail all the way to downtown Bemidji, a super cute little downtown area with lots of shops and places to eat. As we crossed the bridge into the downtown area, we had to stop and take some photos of the Mississippi river. It is very small in this part of the country, not at all the mighty river we are accustomed to seeing in the south. Bemidji proudly claims to be the first city on the Mississippi River, and it is. But the interesting part of that claim is that Bemidji is actually north of the headwaters of the river. When the Mississippi leaves its headwaters at Itasca Statte Park, it first flows north before flowing through Lake Bemidji and out through the southern shore of the lake. That is the part of the river you see here as it flows from Lake Bemidji.

Mississippi River
Mississippi River

We enjoyed the ride through downtown Bemidji and were able to take a dedicated bike trail almost to the restaurant. We had to share the last little bit of the ride with cars through the downtown area, but it wasn’t heavy traffic, the streets are wide, and people were courteous toward bikers.

We easily found the restaurant Rhonda had told us about, parked the bikes on the sidewalk and grabbed a table by the window. Imagine how surprised we were to grab a menu and find Rhonda already there, enjoying her lunch! She’d just shuttled our luggage from Walker to the hotel in Bemidji, and decided to grab lunch at Table for 7 while in town. What are the odds of eating lunch at the same restaurant with the only person we know in the whole state of Minnesota? She had some great menu recommendations for us and we had a delicious lunch! Table for 7 (so named because the owner has a family of 7 and they are her biggest supporters) is a farm to table restaurant using ingredients sourced locally. I had the Green Goddess salad, which contained a white bean puree on the bottom mixed greens, garlic scapes, snow peas, pickled onions, etc. Jimmy tried the bison burger with blueberry compote. We shared the Margarita balsamic flatbread. It was all so good!

We said our goodbyes to Rhonda and planned a time for her to pick us up tomorrow and shuttle us to Itasca State Park where we will get to see the headwaters of the mighty Mississippi River. As it was too early to check in and we felt rested and re-energized after that delicious lunch, we decided to ride the bikes up to Lake Bemidji State Park. The trail to the park goes right in front of our hotel and follows the eastern shore of Lake Bemidji. It was a beautiful ride. Lake Bemidji is 6,600 acre lake with 15 miles of shoreline and a depth of 76 feet. The water is crystal clear and the ride was beautiful! We quickly covered the 8 mile trip, taking lots of photos along the way.

The trail goes right beside our hotel
passing our hotel on the way to Lake Bemidji Sttate Park

Once in the park, we took a peak at the little visitor center, bought Lake Bemidji t-shirts and asked for directions to the bog walk. I had heard that Lady Slipper orchids can be seen along the bog walk during certain times of the year. I’d tried to spot one last year when we were on our bike trip in Canada, but was never able to see one. I asked the lady working behind the desk if Lady Slippers were in season at the moment. She said as of Tuesday, there were still a few, but she didn’t know if they’d still be there, as they were fading fast and this was the very tail end of their season. She said she doubted any would be left. I was very hopeful that at least one would hang on! This was just 2 days after the last spotting, so we jumped on the bikes and rode the mile and a half up the hill on a gravel path to where she told us we’d find the bog walk.

The bog walk is a beautiful walk on a wooden board walk. Bikes were not permitted on the boards, so Jimmy stayed behind with the bikes and allowed me to continue on my 2 year search for the Lady Slipper orchid, lol! Many of the bog plants and wildflowers are labelled. I was interested to learn about the bog, which was a low spot near Lake Bemidji left as a glacier retreated. A bog is characterized by acidic waters, poor drainage and sphagnum moss. It’s a soft spongy water-logged surface and would be impossible to walk on without the boardwalk (that’s where the term bogged down came from). The air temperature was much cooler once you entered the bog and the water temperature stays about 10 degrees cooler than the air temperature.

I read all the signs and looked at all the plant labels. I saw pitcher plants in the wild for the first time! They are carnivores, luring insects into their little pitchers to drown and be digested.

The blossoms on the Pitcher plant
The “pitchers” of the Pitcher plant

The bog was thick with vegetation, several species of ferns, wildflowers, wild blueberries, a tuberous grass-pink orchid I’d never heard of,

and at the very end of the boardwalk, near the lake, right before the boardwalk ended and I’d have to turn around, 3 Lady Slipper orchids still hanging on! My two year search was over! I was so excited to see these beautiful plants in the wild and consider it a special blessing from God that these little blooms held on at the very end of the season so I could see them!

the last remaining Lady Slipper orchids of the season

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Heartland State Trail-Minnesota-Day 3-Walker to Park Rapids

6 Jul

We took a break from the Paul Bunyan State Trail today, to ride the Heartland State Trail. The Heartland trail goes right through Walker, and we couldn’t pass up this opportunity to take it in as well. Tomorrow we will continue our ride along the Paul Bunyan, but the Heartland trail was well worth the little detour. It also meant we could stay in the same hotel for a second night and not have to pack up our luggage to be transferred to the next hotel.

After breakfast, we took our time getting on the bikes as it had gotten very chilly overnight. It was 50 degrees when we woke up and stayed cool all day. I was so thankful I’d packed warm biking clothes. I wore 2 jackets over my shirt and long pants, which felt just fine. The weather changes often here. It was sunny when we left the hotel, rainy and misty a few miles out, clear and bright again later on, then overcast most of the afternoon.

After leaving Walker, the next town on the old rail route was Akeley. Typically towns are spaced out about 10 miles apart on a railway. It would be inefficient for trains to stop more often than every 10 miles. That works out really well now too. These old rail lines that have been converted into bike trails have amenities to offer bikers about every 10 miles!

The towns of Walker and Akeley came after the expansion of the railroad to this area in the late 1800’s. The logging industry was a huge catalyst to the expansion of the railroad. The founder of Walker decided to name the new town after Thomas Walker, a big logging baron of the time. His hope was that by naming the town Walker, Mr. Walker could be convinced to build a big sawmill in the new town. However, the sawmill went to the little town of Akeley instead, and Mrs. Walker was the reason for that!

Mrs. Walker had heard about the number of bars and houses of “ill repute” in Walker and she disapproved. It was a rough frontier town! She did not want her husband’s sawmill to be associated with such a place, and convinced him to choose a different location. He chose Akeley, just 10 miles down the line from Walker, and Akeley became a boom town. Mr. Walker’s sawmill was once the largest in the state. Lumberjacks came and went on every train coming into town to work the lumber industry. Today, Akeley’s population is just 500, and Walker’s is around 900. Both are quiet little towns today with friendly people. We didn’t notice any houses of ill repute in either town! However, there was a really big Paul Bunyan statue that I couldn’t pass up!

We stopped for a break right outside of Akeley to enjoy the sunshine on this cool morning.

Our next stop was Nevis. They also have a big roadside attraction. It seems every little town has a roadside “claim to fame”, and we’ve stopped at every one we’ve spotted! Nevis had the largest Tiger Muskie in the world, so of course I had to have a picture made with that too!

We also took the opportunity to eat lunch at the Iron Horse right beside the bike trail. I had shrimp tacos and Jimmy had the walleye sandwich. He is on a mission to eat as much walleye as possible on this trip. We can’t get it in Kentucky.

The next town we came to was Dorset, and it had several cute shops and places to eat. We looked around a bit and continued on.

We arrived at the end of the trail in Park Rapids, where we were to eat dinner, then be picked up by Rhonda from our shuttle service (Soulshine Cyclery), for a ride back to our hotel in Walker. But we were not yet hungry for dinner and wanted to put in a few extra miles on the bikes, so we called Rhonda to switch our pick up to Nevis, which was a little closer to her. Jimmy couldn’t quit thinking about the walleye sandwich he’d eaten for lunch and noticed he could have a walleye dinner on the evening menu. After looking around just a bit in Park Rapids, we headed back toward Nevis.

We soon arrived back in Nevis and Jimmy got his walleye dinner. I ordered the salmon and they were both delicious. We ended up with a total of around 43 miles. Another beautiful day in Minnesota.

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Paul Bunyan State Trail-Minnesota-Day 2-Jenkins to Walker

5 Jul

We woke to cloudy skies today and knew the forecast called for rain later in the day. When our shuttle driver dropped us off at the beginning of the trail, she told us to let her know if we wanted to change our plans in case of rain. We checked the radar and the local forecast and decided to ride. Our strategy was to get an early start and try to beat the rain. We left our bags at the front desk for the shuttle service (Soulshine Cyclery) to retrieve and set off. Though the clouds were with us all day, it was still a beautiful trail.

We had decided our first stop would be the little town of Hackensack for two reasons. Soulshine Cyclery, our shuttle service had a bike/coffee shop there, and we’d heard really good things about the coffee. Secondly, I wanted to see the statue of Lucette, Paul Bunyan’s girlfriend. It was about a 25 mile ride and I stopped to take many pictures on the way!

A few miles out of Hackensack, it began to rain. It was just a light sprinkle at first but soon I pulled off the trail and put on my raingear. Jimmy however thought it felt very refreshing so he skipped the rain gear and enjoyed the cool down. Once we arrived in Hackensack, the coffee at Soulshine was just what we needed. Rhonda, the lady that had shuttled us out to the start of the trail was working behind the counter alongside her son Jesse, the owner of the shop.

Rhonda recommended we try a local favorite, a hot coffee drink with cinnamon and honey that Jesse, a beekeeper, harvests from his hives. It was delicious. We said our goodbyes to Rhonda and told her we’d see her tomorrow. She will be shuttling us back to our hotel after tomorrow’s ride.

The rain had really set in at this point, but it wasn’t a cold rain and there was no thunder or lightning. We had about 13 miles to go before we made it to Walker, where we’d spend the night. But first we wanted to find something to eat for lunch. There weren’t too many options in town, so we decided to look around a bit. We checked out the little visitor center, the cute little lakeside log library, and the dock beside the lake. Though the rain was really coming down now, it did not put a damper on the 4th of July festivities in that little town. They were grilling hotdogs and the children were fishing off the dock in some type of town contest, all in the rain that no one seemed to mind. We grabbed a couple of hotdogs from the dock and ate them in the rain under the big statue of Lucette.

There are statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe, his blue ox in almost every little Minnesota town we’ve been in so far. In 1950 the little village of Hackensack was feeling left out and decided they needed a tourist attraction in their town too, but didn’t want just another Paul statue. So one of the store owners in town, Mr. Schroeder, came up with the idea that Paul Bunyan needed a sweetheart. He took the task upon himself to build the statue using a wooden frame. He completed his project with the addition of metal lath, insulation, sand and cement. When he was finished, Lucette reached a height of 17 feet and her head contained genuine moose eyes! With the completion of the statue in 1950, the little town of Hackensack had a colorful tourist attraction that could match the size of any Paul Bunyan in Minnesota. But she didn’t have a name… So in 1951, a nationwide contest was launched to name Paul Bunyan’s sweetheart. A woman in Iowa came up with the name of Lucette Dianna Kensack (there’s a trivia question for you!). The runner up name was Landa Happy Waters, also fitting because of the number of lakes in Minnesota! But Lucette it was, and though her head blew off in a storm in 1999, the little town rallied together and built a new head for her. Her new head is much fuller and rounder than the previous one, but I suppose that happens as we get older!

After the break in Hackensack, we continued on toward Walker in the rain. I took these photos along the way. It really is a beautiful part of the country, even in the rain.

This big guy let me get very close before he hopped!
An old power pole, one of the few relics of the railroad still in place alongside the trail.

We had a delay of several minutes to change a flat tire on Jimmy’s bike, in the rain, but we were soon on our way again. We were very happy to cross the highway into Walker, and easily found our hotel right alongside the trail overlooking the lake. The hot showers felt so good after a day of biking in the rain!

Once we were in dry clothes, it was time to find dinner! That one hotdog did not last us through our ride. By this time, the rain had ended and we had a beautiful ride into the town of Walker for dinner. We were able to ride our bikes on a trail all the way to a restaurant on the other end of town, and the blue skies were a welcome sight after the day of rain.

We were the first to enter the restaurant (The Boulders) when they opened at 5:00 pm. We had about 45 miles of biking behind us and we were starving! We enjoyed our meal very much, and it was a great way to spend the 4th of July, seeing this beautiful country by bike!

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Paul Bunyan State Trail-Minnesota-Day 1-Crow Wing State Park to Jenkins

5 Jul

For this leg of our Minnesota bike trip, we were able to use a shuttle service in the area. We went with Soulshine Cyclery based in Hackensack, MN. Bikes, Coffee, Adventure is their motto. That sounds good to me! Once we gave them an idea of the mileage we wanted to ride each day, (around 40ish) they made all the lodging reservations for us based on that mileage. It saved us a lot of time in research and planning and they provided us with a map and suggested eating options along the trail. Most importantly, they shuttle our luggage for us each day from place to place, so all we have to do is ride our bikes to the next night’s lodging along the trail.

Soulshine Cyclery picked us (and our bikes) up at the hotel in Bemidji, MN the first morning at 7:00 am and took us 2 hours south to Crow Wing State Park where the Paul Bunyan Trail begins. Rhonda, the owner’s mom was our courier and we enjoyed the ride very much. She had some great recommendations on things to see in the little towns we would pedal through as we headed back north toward Bemidji over the next 4 days. She was also able to point out the places we would be staying each night so we’d know what we were looking for as we concluded each day’s ride.

We arrived at the park around 9:15 am, unloaded the bikes and set off.

Crow Wing State Park is beautiful and is recovering nicely from a recent forest fire. There’s already lots of new healthy plants. We saw all types of wildflowers, wild asparagus, and wild raspberries were plentiful along the trail. I ate quite a few raspberries, they were so sweet!

We rode along the Mississippi River here, then crossed it by bridge. It’s not very large up here, as it has just gotten started. Later in the week we will get to see the headwaters of the Mississippi, but at this point along the trail, it looks like a large creek or small river. Not the mighty Mississippi we are accustomed to seeing in the Southern States.

I took so many pictures because the day was just gorgeous and there was so much beauty to see. There are lakes all along the trail. You don’t have to ride very far before seeing another lake. There is almost always water in view. There are many cabins and family resorts in this area due to the abundance of lakes. Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes after all!

We took one of Rhonda’s recommendations for lunch and stopped in the cute little town of Nisswa right on the trail. The trail goes right through the middle of town and there were lots of food booths and attractions for the July 4th celebration. In fact each little trail town had something special set up for the 4th of July holiday.

We were seated out on the patio at the Main Street restaurant and watched all the activity along the main drag. I ate like a local and had some famous Minnesota wild rice in the form of a chick pea/wild rice burger. Minnesota has more acres of wild rice than any other state in the country. The burger was delicious! Jimmy went more traditional and had a regular burger and fries, also delicious.

After lunch, we pedaled on and 9 miles later, arrived at our place of lodging for the night. We got checked in and our bags were waiting for us behind the desk.

We had only one option for dinner, but it was a good one. We walked across the highway to the A Pine Restaurant. It has been in business here since 1965, and it had a very vintage, charming feel.

I don’t think it has changed at all since it was built and the servers were very friendly and sweet. I ate like a local again and ordered the turkey sandwich topped with slaw on wild rice cranberry toast. It was one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever eaten. Jimmy could not resist the fried chicken and mashed potatoes. We both had pie for dessert, because Rhonda had told us the A Pine is known for the pie, made by Grandma Bettie Jane who lives in nearby Brainerd. They were good pies! We ate every bite, but felt okay about it after biking for 37 miles today, lol! (Not sure why my pants feel tight!)

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Wabash Trace Nature Trail-Iowa

1 Jul

The Wabash Trace spans 63 miles in Iowa from Council Bluffs to Blanchard. It’s a beautiful trail with lots of shade cover, travelling through rural farmland and little towns the railroad left behind. We decided to tackle this one by staying in towns that would give us the opportunity to ride out and back in one direction the first day, then out and back in the opposite direction the next day, giving us two nights at each location. For the first leg of the trip, we chose to stay in Malvern, Iowa and rode from Malvern to Council Bluffs and back the first day, for about 43 miles in distance.

Our accommodations were in an old church! This was one of the few places in town to stay. It’s owned by Zack, who moved back to his hometown after living in Colorado for several years. He was looking for space for his art studio and wanted to save a historic building. The church is approximately 150 years old and was last used for worship in 1969 by the Presbyterian congregation.

The lower floor is the Airbnb space and the upper floor is the art studio. He invites guests to take a look upstairs, and of course I couldn’t resist! I’m glad the beautiful building was saved and repurposed. It’s a treasure in this little town.

Malvern is a cute little town too, with friendly people. We ate dinner at the Classic Cafe and walked around to snap a few pictures.

We woke up to dark skies and a heavy downpour, which delayed us just a bit. We ate at C&M’s Cafe one of two restaurants in town, both mom and pop places, and had a hearty breakfast. The rain finally quit and we were soon able to get on the trail.

The Wabash Trace follows the old Council Bluffs and St. Louis Railway and first started in 1878. It traverses a route through rural country and connects a handful of little towns. One interesting characteristic of the land here, is that the Wabash Trace travels through the Loess hills area.This is the only place in the United States where this particular soil formation is found at such depth. In fact the only other place in the world similar, is in northern China. Loess hills (pronounced luss) were formed as glaciers retreated and consist of fine particles of wind-blown silt that form gently rolling hills. The unusual depth of the loess in this region is the unique thing about these hills, and the thing that makes them rare. It makes very fertile farm land, but is highly erosive, so farmers have had to take extra measures to keep the land in place. The beautiful farm fields are very healthy looking and most of them are terraced and have a series of earthen berms to keep the rich soil in place.

farm field showing earthen berms
Farm field showing earthen berms along the hillside

The skies soon cleared and we enjoyed the peaceful ride through beautiful farmland and tall grass prairie. There were a couple of people picking berries along the trail and I stopped to ask the first one I saw what he was picking. It was black raspberries, which grow wild all along the trail. He pointed the bushes out to me and I spotted them along the way as I rode, stopping to pick a few for a snack.

One thing we noticed as we rode, was what appeared to be remnants of train wrecks along the old rail line. I was beginning to wonder how dangerous rail travel must have been back in the day, there were so many wrecked rail cars! So I Googled it. In the 1940’s the railroad placed old rail cars along the banks of creeks to deter further soil erosion (another safeguard for the highly erosive loess soil!) Once I read that, I realized that all the “wrecked” rail cars I’d spotted, were on the banks of creeks. I guess the railroad was ahead of its time in 1940 to reuse, repurpose, and recycle.

One spot along the trail near Mineola though, actually did contain the remnants of a train derailment from 1928, one of the worse disasters on the line. It happened when a wooden trestle over a creek collapsed after a night of heavy rain. Driftwood had apparently collected around the trestle pilings and the pilings could not stand up to the force of water from the storm. Four people were killed in that wreck, when the trestle gave way and plunged the two engine cars and the 6 refrigerated meat cars into the 40 foot ravine. All four of the crewmen who died were from the same town in Missouri.

I took several photos in the little towns and along the trail. It turned into a gorgeous day once the rain had moved out.

On Thursdays, a local restaurant on the trail sponsors a Taco Ride. We just happened to be riding on a Thursday and stopped at Tobey Jack’s in Mineola to eat our tacos for lunch. I believe the dinner crowd for the taco ride in the evenings is much larger and likely much rowdier, but at lunch, we had the place to ourselves and enjoyed the delicious tacos! There’s also a cute old hotel right across the street, but thankfully we already had accommodations elsewhere!

We woke up the next morning to the sounds of a torrential downpour and to the sounds of things hitting the windows and door of the Airbnb as the wind blew. In fact, when we turned on the news, we saw that the straight-line winds had reached 100-120 mph as the storm (a derecho) had passed through.

We knew the trail would be even softer today after this second round of heavy rain. On yesterday’s ride we encountered several limbs across the trail from the storms the previous night. On today’s ride, after the storm that barrelled through last night, there were numerous limbs and trees across the trail. We cleared all we could, walked or lifted our bikes over or around others, until we got to a tree that was too big to move and too massive to walk around.

The ride was grueling in the soft, rain-soaked surface that grabbed our tires. It was difficult to get any momentum going because just as we’d pick up a little speed, we’d have to dismount for another fallen tree. When we were finally stopped in our tracks by the last tree, we’d traveled 16 very tough miles, and I was not disappointed to have to turn around at that point!

The tree that ended our ride!

The only disappointment was that the spot where we’d planned to eat lunch was 6 miles past the fallen tree. We made it back to Malvern for a late lunch of cheeseburgers and fries at C&M’s Cafe. Though the ride on the soft surface was very tough, we still enjoyed the beautiful scenery. The trail surface is in great shape with no roots or potholes, but it is definitely a harder ride after 2 nights of heavy rain!

We left Malvern after our two day stay and relocated to Red Oak, Iowa, where we stayed at the Riverbend Heritage Lodge. We checked in, unloaded our things and went to find dinner in town. Red Oak is a bit larger than Malvern, so there were more options. The little town of Red Oak is beautiful, and I took several photos of the old courthouse built in 1890 of red limestone.

Red Oak is not on the bike trail, but it was an easy drive to access the trail. However, another rain set in, this one lasting all day, and we were not able to ride on our third day to conclude this trail. Instead, we used the rest day before heading to Minnesota tomorrow, and are thankful we’re in such a pretty spot to rest!

Riverbend Heritage Lodge
A short walk to the river from Riverbend Heritage Lodge

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Day 12 – Vernon River to Charlottetown – 44 km (27.4 miles)

8 Jul

We were so happy to see the bright blue cloudless skies and sunshine this morning. It was a welcome sight after yesterday’s rain. We ate a quick breakfast from the items we’d picked up at the little market yesterday and headed out on the bikes.

Leaving Do Duck Inn

The first portion of our ride took us along rural roads. Since I didn’t take any pictures yesterday, I took a bunch today. Knowing this is our last day to ride and see beautiful Prince Edward Island, I tried to capture it all!

We connected to the Confederation Trail after a few miles and I took in all the views, knowing this would be the last day on this memorable trail. Below is just a small sampling of the photos I took.

wild strawberries
an underpass for farm equipment
an old culvert dated 1930

It was a beautiful section of trail and a beautiful day. There were so many wild strawberries along the path in this particular area.

We once again we left the trail as we neared Charlottetown and rode the coastal roads. The view of the farm fields with the bright blue sky and backdrop of the water was gorgeous.

Still in a rural agricultural area, we saw some cute farm stands right on the road selling their produce. They were operated on the honor system.

As we neared Charlottetown, we had a portion of bike lane, the rest was on the shoulder of the road shared with cars. We also got into some hills! We pressed on though and my personal goal was to not walk my bike up any hills. I was very tempted on this particular stretch, but didn’t give in! We crossed a bridge from Stratford over to Charlottetown. It carried a lot of traffic and I was glad we had a separate bike lane.

We were ready for lunch at this point, and ate at a lobster house on the wharf with beautiful views of the water. I ordered a burger and fries and Jimmy went with fish and chips.

We explored the Charlottetown waterfront after we ate. It’s beautiful with little shops and restaurants. I love the colorful floating homes in the harbor.

these cute little floating homes are rentals!

With the return to Charlottetown, that completed our Tip-to-Tip ride of Prince Edward Island. When all was said and done, we’d been on the bike for 10 days and ridden 324 miles (522 km).

We did it!

We only had one day that was a complete rain out, only riding about 5 miles that day. We lodged at 9 different establishments from historic inns to a little farm cabin. I would stay at each place again. We met some wonderful people and found the residents of PEI to be very kind and welcoming.

The weather and the views were beautiful in late June/early July. We’d been told the island was flat, and we’d been told the island was hilly. It can be both, and some of that depends on your perspective. If you live in the Rocky Mountains, you’d say it was flat. If you lived in Kansas, you would say it’s hilly. It depends on where you are riding. The Confederation Trail, being a converted railway, is flat with not more than a 2% grade. Some of the coastal roads we biked were hilly, but not horrible. At least the route we took. There are more serious hills toward the center of the island I think. But I never had to get off my bike and walk, though at times I was tempted. We did a combination of the Confederation Trail and coastal roads. If you just stay on the trail, you miss all the beautiful shoreline, and charming little harbors. We felt safe on the roadways. Most have wide shoulders and little traffic. We found the drivers to be very courteous as they are accustomed to bikes on the roads here.

There are mosquitoes and lots of them. They did not bother us while we were in motion on the bikes, but in many areas, as soon as we stopped, we were swarmed with them. We had Off towelettes in our bike bag and those worked well to keep them away.

We reached out to George Larter with PEI Guide and Drive Service when we began to plan the trip in earnest. It was originally planned for the summer of 2020, but Covid-19 put that plan on hold. George develops itineraries for folks visiting the island, and provides a number of services. He made all of our lodging reservations for us, with the exception of the one we had already made at the Fairholm Inn in Charlottetown. He also picked us up a time or two to take us to different areas on the island so we could get everything in that we wanted to see with the time we had. He also transferred our luggage for us each day. All we had to do was leave it in the room when we left on the bikes in the morning, and it would be waiting for us that evening at the next place. He also went grocery shopping for us when he knew we would be staying at an inn with no dinner options. Of course he came to our rescue on the day it rained for 12 hours, lol, picking us up early so we didn’t have to ride in the rain. He was great to work with.

It was a great trip, one we will always remember. And what a blessing to have shared it together!

Lodging List

Mill River Resort

Prince County Guesthouse

Heritage Classic Inn

Fairholm Inn

Bishops Rest

Points East Coastal Inn

Georgetown Historic Inn

Cliffside Inn

Do Duck Inn

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